NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Briefing.com paid a substantial amount and admitted liability to settle a lawsuit involving the unauthorized republication of news headlines and articles from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
In settling the lawsuit, Briefing.com admitted that copying and republishing portions of more than 100 articles violated Dow Jones's rights under the Copyright Act. In addition, Briefing.com admitted violating Dow Jones's rights under the "hot news" misappropriation doctrine by systematically republishing time-sensitive Dow Jones content.
"Dow Jones is committed to aggressively pursuing legal action to prevent the unauthorized use of our content," said Mark H. Jackson, general counsel for Dow Jones. "This settlement demonstrates that such actions are not resolved with a simple slap on the wrist, but have significant financial repercussions."
Dow Jones filed the lawsuit in April in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in response to Briefing.com's systematic and often instantaneous misappropriation of Dow Jones headlines and articles. The misappropriated content, which was first published on the leading real-time financial newswire Dow Jones Newswires, also included news from TheWall Street Journal and Barron's.
In addition to admitting liability and paying to resolve this matter, Briefing is permanently enjoined from infringing Dow Jones' copyrights in its content. The final judgment in the case was entered on Nov. 15. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
"In order to continue to offer high-quality, timely news and information, we must vigorously protect our content from those who seek to free-ride on Dow Jones' editorial excellence," Mr. Jackson said.
The "hot news" misappropriation doctrine, which has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years, was invoked in this case to address Briefing.com's systematic taking of certain Dow Jones content. Briefing.com copied and pasted Dow Jones news, including more than 70 headlines, and quickly published the content on its own news feed, thereby taking advantage of Dow Jones' extensive and expensive newsgathering efforts.
"For those who question whether hot news misappropriation has a place in the modern era, this case demonstrates that it is a vital and effective tool for protecting time-sensitive content," Mr. Jackson added.
Robert LoBue from the law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler represented Dow Jones in this matter.
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